The present invention generally relates to an oil spill recovery system, and more particularly to a multiple stage oil spill recovery system.
Oil spills are an increasing problem in today's society. The increasing size and frequency of oil spills on the earth's waterways, lakes, rivers and oceans, is devastating to the ecologically sensitive environment of the earth. In addition, and due to the increasing dependency of humans on the use of oil, gasoline and diesel, oil spills can be potentially devastating to the world's economy.
Oil recovery systems are known for aiding in the clean up of oil spills on the earth's waterways or land masses. One known oil spill recovery system includes the use of a large sponge to soak up the contaminated water. Once the contaminated water is absorbed by the sponge, any excess water is squeezed out of the sponge. The sponge is then rolled up and transferred to a landfill where it is buried. Disadvantageously, sponge systems of this type require humans to enter the contaminated water to roll out and position the sponge in the contaminated area. In addition, the necessity to bury the contaminated sponge has environmental implications of its own.
Other oil spill recovery systems include the ability to separate oil from water. An oil-water mixture is pumped into a separator apparatus. The oil separates to the top of the separator apparatus due to the difference in density of the oil from the water. Once separated, the oil may be removed from the top of the apparatus while the water may be separately removed from the bottom of the apparatus. However, oil separators of this type are typically quite large which may limit their use to large oil spills only. In addition, oil separators may be susceptible to remixture of the oil and water within the separator apparatus due to rough water or strong currents which cause instability of the vessel the oil separator is carried on.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an oil spill recovery system that is environmentally friendly, simple to operate and effective to clean up oil spills of any magnitude.